Personnel, Student, School, and Community Support Committee - Regular Meeting

Wednesday, April 15, 2026

The committee discussed deficiencies in the school safety compliance report, changes to ESOL teacher certification, and student expulsion policies, particularly for young children. Members also debated communication protocols between the board and administration and received an update on the "Secure Our Future" referendum.

About this meeting

Government Body
Personnel, Student, School, and Community Support Committee
Meeting Type
Personnel, Student, School, And Community Support Committee
Location
Miami-Dade County, FL
Meeting Date
April 15, 2026

Part of a shared recording

Several meetings were recorded back to back. Playback starts at this meeting; the others are below.

Published excerpts

Only published remarks appear here. The full transcript is not published.

14 sections

3:46:31 – 3:48:01•Mary Blanco

Yes. Oh, let her go first. That's okay. Sorry, you just weren't looking this way, so I wanted to make sure I got your attention. Yeah, through the chair and through no fault of our own, I haven't been able to have an official briefing on some of the items, and this question I sometimes am able to ask during the briefing, but I didn't have that opportunity. I mention this whenever we get one of these D19s, and I look at the percentage of schools that had... You know, with no deficiencies, we're looking at 54%. Just kind of, I've been asking every time this comes up, a breakdown. What was it, ri

4:10:18 – 4:12:06•Danny Espino

Thank you. Sorry to interrupt. And I certainly don't want to, this is, We don't have too many opportunities to discuss these things. I just want to put something on everybody's radar. I don't know if all of you know, but we're having a consolidation in District 5, which is Miami Springs Middle and Miami Senior High. It's been very well received by the community. And one of the challenges, and Dr. Lewis and I have spoken about this along with the central region, has been that I think we may need to look at how our ABC process time-wise affects affects consolidations and affects closures. I know

4:13:52 – 4:21:19•Joseph S. Geller

Yes, and I had the opportunity during the briefing to discuss this item with Dr. Lewis, and I gave him a heads-up that I was going to be talking about it. Before I get into the substance, I just want to say to our attorney, Mr. Harvey, I'm aware that these are highly confidential matters, and I certainly don't want to be the person who puts something on the record that we should not be. I want to discuss this from the standpoint of what has been released, but I will ask you, sir, if you hear me starting to say anything, that sounds like it will violate anyone's privacy, please just break in an

4:30:23 – 4:33:29•Joseph S. Geller

Chair, very briefly, and I want to hear from others. But let me just say, I sat in the legislature on that day. I was up there. I was involved with that bill. I supported that bill and parts of legislation I had introduced to increase the number of school resource officers that were public safety officers had been introduced by me at the request of this district before that tragedy and were incorporated in that bill. I want to be clear. I am not suggesting that we have the ability under existing legislation to modify safety measures that we are required to take when there's a violation. That i

4:35:19 – 4:36:47•Joseph S. Geller

Through the Chair, very quickly, Dr. Lewis, I know you care about this very strongly. I'm happy to have that debriefing, and I know that you're doing what you can. I don't question those alternative services. I think they're, frankly, I've asked about this issue with you in conversations before, and at any age of the child. I think it's great that we provide those services. My focus is on making sure that we're doing what we can to persuade older students and families to take advantage of those alternative services, how we track them, who doesn't get in, Why do people not take advantage of tho

4:43:19 – 4:44:55•Mary Blanco

Sorry, I didn't want to, I think several months ago, maybe even a year, used a word and it was like to extend this, right? But too much mental health is going on tonight, make a comment. I've lived a lot of these situations. And I can tell you that when students, sometimes even if they've already been identified as having any kind of concern, their special education, when these happen, usually one of the first things that happens is a psychoeducational evaluation. Those cases are expedited when the student goes to an alternative site, and I'm sure we follow that same thing. One of the most fru

4:48:06 – 4:54:35•Joseph S. Geller

Yes. Let me just close with this, and I have something concrete that I want to suggest. I can't think of a member of this board who doesn't feel the same way. I can see it on everyone's faces. If I had never seen you before today, I get that. And I want to say again that I've had conversations about these issues with the administration, not just with the superintendent, but I really do want to single out Dr. Lewis because every time this has come up, he's shown within the context of the law Tremendous compassion for these situations and that's it's just not lost on me doctor that was I appreci

5:14:08 – 5:16:47•Danny Espino

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Madam Vice Chair, thank you so much for bringing this item. I hope that you would bring something forward. It was given as one of your school's But like SAS, AAA has students from across the county. So the moment this started happening, it had a ripple effect with students communicating to my office as well as changes within AAA being thought to apply also to SAS. I even had a former intern reach out to us and communicate that why is the principle of SAS changing and that wasn't the thing. I talked to my staff and I just said, did I miss a D21 or was there an issue that r

5:16:53 – 5:22:52•Mary Blanco

Thank you, Vice Chair, for bringing this forward. And Mr. Espino, you used the word I was gonna use. This is not meant to be like an airing of dirty laundry, but it is an opportunity to speak. My office also received a couple calls and emails regarding AAA. wasn't my school, right? So I had my office reach out to your office because they had some questions and like you said, they're not particularly to a district, right? They could be from all over the county. But I was surprised and felt that it was extremely unfortunate because I have been working together with the superintendent and his tea

5:23:31 – 5:24:08•Mary Blanco

Through the chair. Yes, through the chair. And consider it, right? And I don't know if it's appropriate to specifically what your item and what your intention was. But in Recommend 2, where it says, ensure timely and appropriate notification to the school board, including for situational awareness. Sorry, I'm losing my place. The board member representing any affected school and or land, property. I'm not sure. It came to me, honestly, as you were speaking, and I was thinking of situations where maybe I didn't receive notification of something.

5:40:25 – 5:40:40•Joseph S. Geller

Mr. Chair, can I raise a point of order very quickly with you? Point of order, yes. Yes, sir. I have to be in a meeting at 5. Can my item still proceed forward if I have to leave before we get to it on the agenda?

5:53:42•Joseph S. Geller

We did this last year. Hope we'll do it again this year.

6:01:39•Danny Espino

And the next step is exactly, Mr. Chair, what I was going to bring up. The question was, when are we going to see an item for it, and when will we see proposed ballot language?

6:03:34•Danny Espino

Time is now 5.04. No, I meant we're starting now. Oh, five minutes. Five minutes. Five minutes to regain our quorum and to reshuffle our chairs.

These excerpts are remarks by officials whose identity a person confirmed, from a transcript generated automatically from the official public meeting video and presented unedited. Accuracy may vary; view the original recording for reference.